Toshiba Laptop Brightness and Power Management Issues

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I was able to get High Sierra running on an old Toshiba laptop. Everything seems to be running fine (Graphics,Keyboard/Trackpad,Volume,Battery Percentage) besides the power management & brightness control. (Plus still awaiting on the order of the Broadcom Wifi NIC to come in, so I can finally have a network connection haha)

For Brightness: Tried the AppleBacklightFixup.kext guide with no success.

For Power Management: Found out that I was still using NullCpuPowerManagement.kext, and once I removed this it seems to be running just slightly better. When watching HWMonitor the spikes of CPU are insane during idle. Tried following the power management guide with no success either.

CPU is an Arrandale generation. Hopefully there is a fix out there.

Also not running any patched DSDT or SSDT's. I used MacIASL with a dumped DSDT & it only returned 1 error that it needed the GFX>IGPU rename (used CLOVER for that) does that mean there isn't anything to patch?

Make sure you're only using the IGPU and any discreet graphics is disabled. Search the DSDT for the integrated graphics device located at 0x000020000 and rename it IGPU if needed. Also make sure you have Lilu.kext installed and SSDT-PNLF.aml in EFI\CLOVER\ACPI\patched.

For Power Management: Found out that I was still using NullCpuPowerManagement.kext, and once I removed this it seems to be running just slightly better. When watching HWMonitor the spikes of CPU are insane during idle. Tried following the power management guide with no success either.

Also not running any patched DSDT or SSDT's. I used MacIASL with a dumped DSDT & it only returned 1 error that it needed the GFX>IGPU rename (used CLOVER for that) does that mean there isn't anything to patch?

Make sure you're only using the IGPU and any discreet graphics is disabled. Search the DSDT for the integrated graphics device located at 0x000020000 and rename it IGPU if needed. Also make sure you have Lilu.kext installed and SSDT-PNLF.aml in EFI\CLOVER\ACPI\patched.

Still no luck even did it a few times to make sure all was done right. Originally was using Clover to patch IGPU, but now even patched the DSDT to rename all GFX0 to IGPU & placed it into patched folder.

Hi @koolp you might want to post your current EFI folder and your dumped DSDT files. So I assume you don't have a working brightness slider (or any brightness control) in Preferences/Displays correct?

Regarding your question about the power management guide I linked. All you probably need to do is open config.plist in Clover Configurator and check Generate PStates/Generate CStates under the SSDT area of the ACPI section. Download and open IORegistryExplorer and check that AICPMVers is loaded under the CPU0 node. HWMonitor can help with verifying CPU speed is behaving normally too. Do before and after comparisons of both. Only post a problem report if you have issues.

Hi @koolp you might want to post your current EFI folder and your dumped DSDT files. So I assume you don't have a working brightness slider (or any brightness control) in Preferences/Displays correct?

Regarding your question about the power management guide I linked. All you probably need to do is open config.plist in Clover Configurator and check Generate PStates/Generate CStates under the SSDT area of the ACPI section. Download and open IORegistryExplorer and check that AICPMVers is loaded under the CPU0 node. HWMonitor can help with verifying CPU speed is behaving normally too. Do before and after comparisons of both. Only post a problem report if you have issues.

Attached is archive with the current EFI folder, Dumped DSDT files un-patched, ioreg file current. I have reverted all backlight fix attemps, so all these files are without them. Maybe someone can check out the DSDT files to see exactly what is conflicting with getting the brightness to work?

Brightness: Yes that is correct nothing shows up and there is no control of the brightness. I have tried every single backlight fix thread, without results. Possibly the laptop doesn't use PWM for brightness control? Even tried a control app in case it will never show up in system preferences.

Power Management (Resolved?): I believe it is now working fine (IOREG attached for reference). It idles at 1.2 GHz and spikes quite a bit once used, but it is an older processor I understand it doesn't have the best power management lol.

FYI. Currently just using Clover to patch all that needs to be patched for my setup.

Thank you!

Attachments

Brightness: Yes that is correct nothing shows up and there is no control of the brightness. I have tried every single backlight fix thread, without results. Possibly the laptop doesn't use PWM for brightness control? Even tried a control app in case it will never show up in system preferences.

You might want to look at the link in the "Arrandale/1st gen Intel HD" section of the laptop install guide if you haven't already. Your IOReg info for the Intel IGPU framebuffer looks incomplete to me. I would expect to see index/port entries under IGPU but there's nothing there. If there's more graphics patching needed then brightness won't work until that's done. Also don't use the Clover AddPNLF under ACPI/Fixes it won't work properly with AppleBacklightFixup or AppleBacklightInjector.

Power Management (Resolved?): I believe it is now working fine (IOREG attached for reference). It idles at 1.2 GHz and spikes quite a bit once used, but it is an older processor I understand it doesn't have the best power management lol.

You might want to look at the link in the "Arrandale/1st gen Intel HD" section of the laptop install guide if you haven't already. Your IOReg info for the Intel IGPU framebuffer looks incomplete to me. I would expect to see index/port entries under IGPU but there's nothing there. If there's more graphics patching needed then brightness won't work until that's done. Also don't use the Clover AddPNLF under ACPI/Fixes it won't work properly with AppleBacklightFixup or AppleBacklightInjector.

Seems good as far as I can tell. You can always post there if you have power/heat issues.

I tried patching my DSDT, but have a few issues outstanding before making it fully all 0 error,warns,etc...:
1. Code 3043: Invalid Combination of Length and Min/Max fixed flags - 2 of these
2. Code 2146: Method Argument is never used (ARG0) - 38 of these
3. Code 3144: Method Local is set but never used (local0), (local3), (local5) - 3 of these
4. Code 3104: Reserved method should not return a value (_EJ0) - 1 of these

Also to input details into the DSDT for graphics I need to ADD the DTGP method to the DSDT . What is the DTGP method never heard of it & cant find nothing out there?

Attached is the current DSDT.aml I am using after resolving hundreds of other opts and warnings & only applied the GFX to IGPU rename patch.

You are if you're using the config.plist in the archive you attached. Open it in Clover Configurator go to ACPI/Fixes click 2 and deselect it. You want either SSDT-PNLF.aml or possibly the "Brightness Fix (HD3000/HD4000)" from MaciASL -Patch - RehabMan Laptop. Similar process for adding the DTGP method as described below.

I tried patching my DSDT, but have a few issues outstanding before making it fully all 0 error,warns,etc...:
1. Code 3043: Invalid Combination of Length and Min/Max fixed flags - 2 of these
2. Code 2146: Method Argument is never used (ARG0) - 38 of these
3. Code 3144: Method Local is set but never used (local0), (local3), (local5) - 3 of these
4. Code 3104: Reserved method should not return a value (_EJ0) - 1 of these

If you need this open your DSDT in MaciASL, click Patch and scroll to the bottom of the repo list, find Sourceforge and select Insert DTGP. However this option is also already selected (AddDTGP) in your attached config file under ACPI/Fixes. When using static patching turn off the corresponding Clover ACPI hot patches. You don't want both.

Until the PNLF device is added correctly your laptop screen is going to show up as external. You might want to post screen shots of the Displays preference panel and "About This Mac" as well as the System Information Graphics/Displays section so we can see what you have working at this point.

You are if you're using the config.plist in the archive you attached. Open it in Clover Configurator go to ACPI/Fixes click 2 and deselect it. You want either SSDT-PNLF.aml or possibly the "Brightness Fix (HD3000/HD4000)" from MaciASL -Patch - RehabMan Laptop. Similar process for adding the DTGP method as described below.

Alright I have made sure that the PNLF isn't patched in the new DSDT & also is removed from the Clover Config. Currently using the SSDT-PNLF.aml to get it patched in. Brightness still isn't working with the FIXUP.kext, so should I attempt using this guide (Brightness Fix) or is it now obsolete since it uses the old Backlight.kext?

If you need this open your DSDT in MaciASL, click Patch and scroll to the bottom of the repo list, find Sourceforge and select Insert DTGP. However this option is also already selected (AddDTGP) in your attached config file under ACPI/Fixes. When using static patching turn off the corresponding Clover ACPI hot patches. You don't want both.

Until the PNLF device is added correctly your laptop screen is going to show up as external. You might want to post screen shots of the Displays preference panel and "About This Mac" as well as the System Information Graphics/Displays section so we can see what you have working at this point.

Attachments

Alright I have made sure that the PNLF isn't patched in the new DSDT & also is removed from the Clover Config. Currently using the SSDT-PNLF.aml to get it patched in. Brightness still isn't working with the FIXUP.kext, so should I attempt using this guide (Brightness Fix) or is it now obsolete since it uses the old Backlight.kext?

Displays looks right to me. From what I see in your IOReg you appear to be using both AppleBacklightFixup.kext and WhateverGreen.kext as I see both loaded. If so remove AppleBacklightFixup (and rebuild your kext cache) its code was incorporated into WhateverGreen some time ago and is deprecated. If fact the two might be conflicting and causing brightness control issues. After doing that and restarting check in System Preferences - Displays and see if you have a working brightness slider. Click on and drag it to see if it changes the screen brightness properly.